Components employed to form various devices such as computing devices often undergo numerous manufacturing operations during the production thereof. Additive manufacturing processes add material to form a component. By way of example, injection molding may be employed to form a component. Conversely, subtractive manufacturing processes remove material from a workpiece or substrate to form a component. For example, material may be machined from a substrate to form the component. In some embodiments both additive and subtractive processes may be employed to form a component, depending on the particular desired final configuration of the component.
Computer numerical control (CNC) machining is one example of a type of subtractive manufacturing process commonly employed to form components. CNC machining typically employs a robotic assembly and a controller. The robotic assembly may include a rotating spindle to which a milling cutter, or alternate embodiment of cutter, is coupled. The milling cutter includes cutting edges that remove material from a workpiece to form a component defining a desired shape and dimensions. In this regard, the controller directs the robotic assembly to move the milling cutter along a machining path that forms the component. However, CNC machining and various other manufacturing processes may not provide a desired surface finish.
In this regard, the workpiece may undergo finishing operations such as lapping operations in order to produce a desired surface finish. Lapping operations generally employ a lapping table to finish flat surfaces of a workpiece. Lapping processes can be applied when a mirrored or high gloss finish is desired for a given workpiece. In this regard, lapping tables typically include a substantially planar abrasive disc capable of producing particularly smooth surface finishes. However, in general, lapping operations are not easily adapted to lapping non-planar surfaces. For example, cylindrical surfaces can be finished by other processes such as abrasive tape finishing or centerless grinding. Unfortunately, these known processes are not well suited for providing a mirrored or at least high gloss finish across a cylindrical surface.
Therefore, what is desired is an efficient and reliable way to apply a lapping operation to a non-planar surface.